We develop a systematic and general approach to study the effective Higgs Lagrangian in a supersymmetric framework in which the Higgs fields in the visible sector couple weakly to another sector. The extra sector may be strongly coupled in general. It is assumed to be superconformal in the ultraviolet, but develop a mass-gap with supersymmetry breaking in the infrared. The main technique used in our approach is that of the operator product expansion (OPE). By using OPE methods we are able to compute the parameters in the Higgs Lagrangian to quadratic order and make general statements that are applicable to many classes of models. Not only does this approach allow us to understand the traditional problems plaguing simple models from a different perspective, it also reveals new possibilities for solutions of these problems. The methods and results of our work should be useful in constructing a viable and natural model of physics beyond the Standard Model.
Visible-sector SUSY-breaking effects are computed in terms of hidden-sector correlation functions for generic holomorphic scalar portals. The solutions, which are valid irrespective of the hidden-sector dynamics, are approximated with the help of the operator product expansion (OPE). Indeed, for theories with superconformal symmetry at high energy, the superconformal OPE formalism can be used to disentangle the high-energy dynamics, encoded in the OPE coefficients, from the low-energy dynamics of the SUSY-breaking vacuum expectation values. A systematic method is proposed to compute the OPE co…
We address the notorious metastability of the standard model (SM) and promote it to a model building task: What are the new ingredients required to stabilize the SM up to the Planck scale without encountering subplanckian Landau poles? Using the SM extended by vector-like fermions (VLFs), we chart out the corresponding landscape of Higgs stability. We find that the gauge portal mechanism, triggered by new SM charge carriers, opens up sizeable room for stability in a minimally invasive manner. We also find models with Higgs criticality, and Yukawa portals opening up at stronger coupling. Severa…
Opening the Topological Portal to Dark Sectors with Colliders
CERN（欧洲核子研究组织）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University of Basel（巴塞尔大学）；Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)（意大利国家核物理研究所）
The Higgs field mass term, being superrenomalizable, has a unique status within the standard model. Through the opening it affords, $SU(3) \times SU(2) \times U(1)$ singlet fields can have renormalizable couplings to standard model fields. We present examples that are neither grotesque nor unnatural. A possible consequence is to spread the Higgs particle resonance into several weaker ones, or to afford it additional, effectively invisible decay channels.
We present a framework for the construction of portal effective theories (PETs) that couple effective field theories of the Standard Model (SM) to light hidden messenger fields. Using this framework we construct electroweak and strong scale PETs that couple the SM to messengers carrying spin zero, one half, or one. The electroweak scale PETs encompass all portal operators up to dimension five, while the strong scale PETs additionally contain all portal operators of dimension six and seven that contribute at leading order to quark-flavour violating transitions. Using the strong scale PETs, we d…
We construct explicit string theory models realizing the recently proposed "Stückelberg Portal" scenario, a framework for building Z' mediation models without the need to introduce unwanted exotic matter charged under the Standard Model. This scenario can be viewed purely field-theoretically, although it is particularly well motivated from string theory. By analyzing carefully the Stückelberg couplings between the Abelian gauge bosons and the RR axions, we construct the first global intersecting brane models which extend the Standard Model with a genuine hidden sector, to which it is nonethele…
We propose an extension of the Standard Model (SM) with a $U_{A'}(1)$ gauge invariant dark dector connected to the SM via a new portal -- the Stueckelberg portal, arising in the framework of dark photon $A'$ mass generation via Stueckelberg mechanism. This portal opens through the effective dim=5 operators constructed from the covariant term of the auxiliary Stueckelberg scalar field $σ$ providing flavor non-diagonal renormalizable couplings of both $σ$ and $A'$ to the SM fermions $ψ$. The Stueckelberg scalar plays a role of Goldstone boson in the generation of mass of the Dark Photon. Contrar…
Pairs of Standard Model fermions form dimension-3 singlet operators that can couple to new dark sector states. This "fermion portal" is to be contrasted with the lower-dimensional Higgs, vector and neutrino singlet portals. We characterise its distinct phenomenology and place effective field theory bounds on this framework, focusing on the case of fermion portals to a pair of light dark sector fermions. We obtain current and projected limits on the dimension-6 effective operator scale from a variety of meson decay experiments, missing energy and long-lived particle searches at colliders, as we…
We consider an extension of the Standard Model with two right-handed singlet fermions with mass at the electroweak scale that induce neutrino masses, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale $Λ$. We focus on the effective operators of lowest dimension $d=5$, which induce new production and decay modes for the singlet fermions. We assess the sensitivity of future Higgs Factories, such as FCC-ee, CLIC-380, ILC and CEPC, to the coefficients of these operators for various center of mass energies. We show that future lepton colliders can test the cut-off of the theory up to $Λ\simeq 500 …
The Dimension-5 Seesaw Portal is a Type-I Seesaw model extended by $d=5$ operators involving the sterile neutrino states, leading to new interactions between all neutrinos and the Standard Model neutral bosons. In this work we focus primarily on the implications of these new operators at the GeV-scale. In particular, we recalculate the heavy neutrino full decay width, up to three-body decays. We also review bounds on the dipole operator, and revisit LEP constraints on its coefficient. Finally, we turn to heavy neutrino pair production from Higgs decays, where the former are long-lived and disi…
We study the impact on leptogenesis of Higgs portal couplings to a new scalar singlet. These couplings open up additional $CP$-violating decay channels for the higher mass singlet neutrinos $N_2$ and $N_3$. We analyze the simplest case of two-level $N_1-N_2$ leptogenesis, including significant mass hierarchies, in which the $CP$ asymmetry is generated in part by singlet-mediated decays of $N_2$. For these models, provided the lightest singlet neutrino $N_1$ is sufficiently weakly coupled to avoid excessive washout, its mass scale is not directly constrained by the Davidson-Ibarra bound.
We study an extension of the Standard Model with electroweak scale right-handed singlet fermions $N$ that induces neutrino masses, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale $Λ$. The latter is parametrized in terms of effective operators in the language of the $ν$SMEFT. We study its phenomenology considering operators up to $d=6$, where additional production and decay modes for $N$ are present in addition to those arising from the mixing with the active neutrinos. We focus on the production with four-Fermi operators and we identify the most relevant additional decay modes to be $N\to …
We study the sensitivity of future electron-positron colliders to UV completions of the fermionic Higgs portal operator $H^\dagger H \bar χχ$. Measurements of precision electroweak $S$ and $T$ parameters and the $e^+e^- \to Zh$ cross section at the CEPC, FCC-ee, and ILC are considered. The scalar completion of the fermionic Higgs portal is closely related to the scalar Higgs portal, and we summarize existing results. We devote the bulk of our analysis to a singlet-doublet fermion completion. Assuming the doublet is sufficiently heavy, we construct the effective field theory (EFT) at dimension-…
Higgs portal interactions provide a simple mechanism for addressing two open problems in cosmology: dark matter and the baryon asymmetry. In the latter instance, Higgs portal interactions may contain the ingredients for a strong first order electroweak phase transition as well as new CP-violating interactions as needed for electroweak baryogenesis. These interactions may also allow for a viable dark matter candidate. We survey the opportunities for probing the Higgs portal as it relates to these questions in cosmology at the LHC and possible future colliders.
The Higgs-portal model with a singlet scalar Dark Matter particle is one of the simplest extensions to the Standard Model that can reproduce the relic density. Unfortunately this model is strongly constrained by direct and indirect DM detection, as well as by collider physics. Most of the parameter space is already ruled-out and the rest will be explored in the next future. We show that a simple extension of the DM sector with a second scalar singlet enables a substantial opening of the allowed window in the parameter space.
The Higgs sector of the Standard Model offers a unique opportunity to probe the hidden sector. The Higgs squared operator is the only dimension two operator which is Lorentz and gauge invariant. It can therefore couple both to scalar curvature and the hidden sector at the dim--4 level. We consider the possibility that a combination of the Higgs and a singlet from the hidden sector plays the role of inflaton, due to their large couplings to gravity. This implies that the quartic couplings satisfy certain constraints which leads to distinct low energy phenomenology, including Higgs signals at th…
The discovery of the Higgs boson opens the door to new physics interacting via the Higgs Portal, including motivated scenarios relating to baryogenesis, dark matter, and electroweak naturalness. We systematically explore the collider signatures of singlet scalars produced via the Higgs Portal at the 14 TeV LHC and a prospective 100 TeV hadron collider. We focus on the challenging regime where the scalars are too heavy to be produced in the decays of an on-shell Higgs boson, and instead are produced primarily via an off-shell Higgs. Assuming these scalars escape the detector, promising channels…
A broad program of searches at high intensity experiments during the coming decade and beyond will sensitively probe new light mediator particles interacting through the minimal renormalizable vector, Higgs, and neutrino portals as well as higher-dimension axion-like particle portals. These portals may link the visible and dark sectors and play a critical role in many proposed solutions to some of the big open questions in particle physics and cosmology. In this whitepaper, we survey the theoretical and experimental progress, status, and prospects in the study of minimal dark sector portals.
The nature of dark matter is one of the open problems of the Standard Model of particle physics. Despite the great experimental efforts, we have not yet found a positive signal of its interactions with ordinary matter. One possible explanation would be that the dark matter particle is primarily coupled to another elusive particle, neutrinos. In this work we study this possibility with several realisations.
We revisit the simplest model of Higgs portal fermionic dark matter. The dark matter in this scenario is thermally produced in the early universe due to the interactions with the Higgs boson which is described by a non-renormalisable dimension-5 operator. The dark matter-Higgs scattering amplitude grows as $\propto \sqrt{s}$, signalling a breakdown of the effective description of the Higgs-dark matter interactions at large enough (compared to the mass scale $Λ$ of the dimention-5 operator) energies. Therefore, in order to reliably compute Higgs-dark matter scattering cross sections, we employ …
Composite asymmetric dark matter scenarios naturally explain why the dark matter mass density is comparable with the visible matter mass density. Such scenarios generically require some entropy transfer mechanism below the composite scale; otherwise, their late-time cosmology is incompatible with observations. A tiny kinetic mixing between a dark photon and the visible photon is a promising example of the low-energy portal. In this paper, we demonstrate that grand unifications in the dark and the visible sectors explain the origin of the tiny kinetic mixing. We particularly consider an ultravi…
The Higgs portal of the Standard Model provides the opportunity for coupling to a very light scalar field $ϕ$ via the super-renormalizable operator $ϕ(H^\dagger H)$. This allows for the existence of a very light scalar dark matter that has coherent interaction with the Standard Model particles and yet has its mass protected against radiative corrections. We analyze ensuing constraints from the fifth-force measurements, along with the cosmological requirements. We find that the detectable level of the fifth-force can be achieved in models with low inflationary scales, and certain amount of fine…
We consider fermionic (Dirac or Majorana) cold thermal relic dark-matter coupling to standard-model particles through the effective dimension-5 Higgs portal operators $Λ^{-1} \ \mathcal{O}_{\text{DM}} \cdot H^\dagger H$, where $\mathcal{O}_{\text{DM}}$ is an admixture of scalar $\barχχ$ and pseudoscalar $\barχiγ_5 χ$ DM operators. Utilizing the relic abundance requirement to fix the couplings, we consider direct detection and invisible Higgs width constraints, and map out the remaining allowed parameter space of dark-matter mass and the admixture of scalar and pseudoscalar couplings. We emphas…
The WIMPzilla hypothesis is that the dark matter is a super-weakly-interacting and super-heavy particle. Conventionally, the WIMPzilla abundance is set by gravitational particle production during or at the end of inflation. In this study we allow the WIMPzilla to interact directly with Standard Model fields through the Higgs portal, and we calculate the thermal production (freeze-in) of WIMPzilla dark matter from the annihilation of Higgs boson pairs in the plasma. The two particle-physics model parameters are the WIMPzilla mass and the Higgs-WIMPzilla coupling. The two cosmological parameters…
We investigate the indirect signatures of the Higgs portal $U(1)_X$ vector dark matter (VDM) $X_μ$ from both its pair annihilation and decay. The VDM is stable at renormalizable level by $Z_2$ symmetry, and thermalized by Higgs-portal interactions. It can also decay by some nonrenormalizable operators with very long lifetime at cosmological time scale. If dim-6 operators for VDM decays are suppressed by $10^{16}$ GeV scale, the lifetime of VDM with mass $\sim$ 2 TeV is just right for explaining the positron excess in cosmic ray recent observed by PAMELA and AMS02 Collaborations. The VDM decayi…
A scalar particle with a relic density set by annihilations through a Higgs portal operator is a simple and minimal possibility for dark matter. However, assuming a thermal cosmological history this model is ruled out over most of parameter space by collider and direct detection constraints. We show that in theories with a non-thermal cosmological history Higgs portal dark matter is viable for a wide range of dark matter masses and values of the portal coupling, evading existing limits. In particular, we focus on the string theory motivated scenario of a period of late time matter domination d…
Fermion dark matter (DM) interacting with the standard model through a Higgs portal requires non-renormalizable operators, signaling the presence of new mediator states at the electroweak scale. Collider signatures that involve the mediators are a powerful tool to experimentally probe the Higgs portal interactions, providing complementary information to strong constraints set by direct DM detection searches. Indirect detection experiments are less sensitive to this scenario. We investigate the collider reach for the mediators using three minimal renormalizable models as examples, and requiring…
The most general basis of operators parametrizing a low-scale departure from the SM particle content is constructed. The SM gauge invariance is enforced, and operators of lowest dimensions are retained separately for a new light neutral particle of spin 0, 1/2, 1, and 3/2. The basis is further decomposed into couplings to the SM Higgs/gauge fields, to pairs of quark/lepton fields, and to baryon/lepton number violating combinations of fermion fields. This basis is then used to systematically investigate the discovery potential of the rare FCNC decays of the K and B mesons with missing energy in…
As an educational aid and source for expert information, a web portal dedicated to Higgs boson research is presented. A database is created with more than 1000 relevant articles using CERN Document Server API and web scraping methods. The database is automatically updated when new results on the Higgs boson become available. Using artificial intelligence and natural language processing, the articles are categorized according to properties of the Higgs boson and other criteria. The process of designing and implementing the Higgs Boson Portal (HBP) is described. The components of the HBP are dep…
Higgs portal models are the most minimal way to explain the relic abundance of the Universe. They add just a singlet that only couples to the Higgs through a single parameter that controls both the dark matter relic abundance and the direct detection cross-section. Unfortunately this scenario, either with scalar or fermionic dark matter, is almost ruled out by the latter. In this paper we analyze the Higgs-portal idea with fermionic dark matter in the context of a 2HDM. By disentangling the couplings responsible for the correct relic density from those that control the direct detection cross s…
A Standard Model extension with two Majorana neutrinos can explain the measured neutrino masses and mixings, and also account for the matter-antimatter asymmetry in a region of parameter space that could be testable in future experiments. The testability of the model relies to some extent on its minimality. In this paper we address the possibility that the model might be extended by extra generic new physics which we parametrize in terms of a low-energy effective theory. We consider the effects of the operators of the lowest dimensionality, $d=5$, and evaluate the upper bounds on the coefficie…
We introduce a dark neutrino sector which respects a hidden $U(1)^\prime$ gauge symmetry, subsequently broken by the vacuum expectation value of a dark scalar. The model is a self-consistent realisation of an extended hidden sector that communicates with the SM only via the three renormalizable portals, namely neutrino, vector and scalar mixing. The interplay between portal couplings leads to several novel signatures in heavy neutrino, dark photon, and dark scalar searches, typically characterised by multi-leptons plus missing energy and displaced vertices. A striking signature arises in kaon …
A renormalizable coupling between the Higgs and a scalar unparticle operator O_U of non-integer dimension d_U<2 triggers, after electroweak symmetry breaking, an infrared divergent vacuum expectation value for O_U. Such IR divergence should be tamed before any phenomenological implications of the Higgs-unparticle interplay can be drawn. In this paper we present a novel mechanism to cure that IR divergence through (scale-invariant) unparticle self-interactions, which has properties qualitatively different from the mechanism considered previously. Besides finding a mass gap in the unparticle con…
The Standard Model with an added Higgs portal interaction and no explicit mass terms is a classically scale-invariant theory. In this case the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking can be induced radiatively by the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism operational in a hidden sector, and then transmitted to the Standard Model through the Higgs portal. The smallness of the generated values for the Higgs vev and mass, compared to the UV cutoff of our classically scale-invariant effective theory, is naturally explained by this mechanism. We show how these classically conformal models can generate the baryo…
A Higgs portal in the form of the operator $|H|^2$ provides a minimal and theoretically motivated link between the Standard Model (SM) and new physics. While Higgs portals can be constrained well by exotic Higgs decays if the beyond-the-SM states are light, testing scenarios where these particles are kinematically inaccessible is known to be challenging. We explore the sensitivity of future hadron collider measurements of $ZZ \to 4 \ell$ production in constraining Higgs portal interactions. It is shown that by using a matrix-element based kinematic discriminant the reach of the high-luminosity…
We show that the Galactic Center Excess (GCE) emission, as recently updated by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration, could be explained by the sum of Fermi-bubbles-like emission plus dark matter (DM) annihilation, in the context of a scalar-singlet Higgs portal scenario (SHP). In fact, the standard SHP, where the DM particle, $S$, only has renormalizable interactions with the Higgs, is non-operational due to strong constraints, specially from DM direct detection limits. Thus we consider a most economical extension, called ESHP (for extended SHP), which simply consists in the addition of a second (heavi…
In this article we discuss a general effective-theory description of a multi-component dark sector with an unspecified non-trivial symmetry and its interactions with the Standard Model generated by the exchange of heavy mediators. We then categorize the relevant effective operators given the current experimental sensistivity where the underlying theory is weakly coupled and renormalizable, with neutral mediators: either scalars or fermions. An interesting scenario resulting from this categorization is the neutrino portal, where only fermion mediators are present, and where the dark sector cons…
We investigate the electroweak vacuum stability in an extended version of the Standard Model which incorporates two additional singlet scalar fields and three right handed neutrinos. One of these extra scalars plays the role of dark matter while the other scalar not only helps in making the electroweak vacuum stable but also opens up the low mass window of the scalar singlet dark matter (< 500 GeV). We consider the effect of large neutrino Yukawa coupling on the running of Higgs quartic coupling. We have analyzed the constraints on the model and identify the range of parameter space which is c…
Search for the production of dark Higgs in the framework of Mono-Z$^{\prime}$ portal at the FCC-ee simulated electron-positron collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 240$ GeV
Centre for Theoretical Physics, The British University in Egypt（埃及英国大学理论物理中心）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari（意大利国家核物理研究所巴里分部）；Politecnico di Bari（巴里理工大学）
Neutron Portal and Dark Matter-Baryon Coincidence: from UV Completion to Phenomenology
Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe, Institute for Basic Science (IBS)（宇宙理论物理中心，基础科学研究院）；Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交大东京-李政道研究所）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；School of Physics, Henan Normal University（河南师范大学物理学院）
Axion-Like Electrophilic Portal for Pion Dark Matter
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati（意大利国家核物理研究所，弗拉斯卡蒂国家实验室）；Università Roma Tre（罗马第三大学）；Beihang University（北京航空航天大学）
The observed burst duration and energies of the neutrinos from Supernova 1987A strongly limit the possibility of any weakly-interacting light particle species being produced in the proto-neutron star (PNS) core and leading to efficient energy loss. We reexamine this constraint on Weinberg's Higgs portal model, in which the dark radiation particles (the Goldstone bosons) and the dark matter candidate (a Majorana fermion) interact with Standard Model (SM) fields solely through the mixing of the SM Higgs boson and a light Higgs boson. In order for the Goldstone bosons to freely stream out of the …
Assuming dark matter is absolutely stable due to unbroken dark gauge symmetry and singlet operators are portals to the dark sector, we present a simple extension of the standard seesaw model that can accommodate all the cosmological observations as well as terrestrial experiments available as of now, including leptogenesis, extra dark radiation of $\sim 0.08$ (resulting in $N_{\rm eff} = 3.130$ the effective number of neutrino species), Higgs inflation, small and large scale structure formation, and current relic density of scalar DM ($X$). The Higgs signal strength is equal to one as in the S…
Interpretations of searches for the Higgs boson are governed by model-dependent combinations of Higgs production cross sections and Higgs branching ratios. Mixing of the Higgs doublet with a hidden sector captures modifications from the Standard Model Higgs phenomenology in the standard search channels in a representative way, in particular because invisible Higgs decay modes open up. As a consequence, LHC exclusion bounds, which disfavor a heavy Standard Model Higgs can be consistently understood in terms of a standard-hidden mixed Higgs system. Shedding light on the possible existence of suc…
